Romance and fantasy author Stephanie Fowers shares her solutions for writing in solitude—isolation, boredom, and plot issues!
I’m very social and so the isolation kills me. And of course, without the proper support, the self-doubt and anxiety goes up.
I think that’s why I’d let myself get so distracted with social media back in the day because it used to be my only way to reach out. The problem with NOT using social media correctly is that it can be the root of stress too—with potentials for conflict, envy, pressure.
When that happens, it can turn into a monster that consumes time, energy, thoughts and creativity, which for me, then contributed to writer’s block and not managing time well. So I guess, isolation was the root of all that and caused a spiral of writer self-destruction.
Writing in Solitude: How I Coped with the Isolation of Being a Writer
First, I had to shut off the social media—just temporarily because I had to figure myself out.
I know that social media can be important for networking, building readership, and marketing BUT I was letting it consume me. No use marketing if I couldn’t produce content. I needed structure, motivation, and to defeat isolation.
Years ago, I had quit my side job to write full time. I was treating my writing like a true job—sitting down at nine and writing for a good eight to nine hours with breaks in between for exercise. But I needed more motivation.
I started a writing journal to describe what was happening every time I had a block and I found my patterns revolved around:
- boredom
- getting stumped on plot
- psychological issues of not feeling good enough and losing hope that I could survive off my writing
Writing in Solitude: Tackling Boredom as a Writer
So first off, I knew that social media was GREAT at giving me dopamine responses—I read all about how it was designed to be addictive, and I also knew that constant quick rewards like that affects the ability to work on longer projects with the reward only at the end.
That meant my brain was craving quick fixes of dopamine (with the validation, the controversies, new information), so instead of fighting it at first, I needed to figure out how to make my writing give me dopamine (before the reward of publishing a book came to me in the end).
So I set up alarms with happy bells. I wrote for five straight minutes. The bells would go off. Then if I managed to write without distraction, I did it for ten more minutes, all the way to fifteen minutes and then going back down until I hit five minutes again.
It was simple, but it worked, especially when I was first starting out. After a while, I realized I was getting a dopamine response when I caught my writing flow. When I started to become interested in what I was saying (my plot, my characters and REALLY living the story) then I was hooked and didn’t need my alarms.
4 Tips for Writers Struggling with Boredom During the Long Writing Process
1. To keep up that writing flow, do not make your break be the end of a chapter.
Begin the next one and THEN stop. It’s so much easier to get into the writing flow again when you sit down and you can read over the beginning of that new chapter and you’re into the story again.
2. Have writing accountability buddies.
You can do this a number of ways, like texting goals and reporting, etc.
A few months ago, I started meeting with my writing buddies with FaceTime/ What’s app/ Facebook messenger, etc. We do timers to keep each other on track. We’ll start a timer for five minutes for when we first start up. Then we tell each other our goals. Next, we’ll start a timer for 25 minutes while going on mute.
We write and then when time is up, we report on what we did for the next five minutes. The timer goes off and then we start again! We can go for longer and longer stretches of time when we want.
Oh, and we aren’t necessarily doing writer sprints. I actually never report my word count because that’s not how I work. We can be editing too or even working on marketing or side hustles. Sky’s the limit! But we are reporting and staying accountable and somehow it works. I’ve never produced so much and so fast and while having a blast!
3. Though many online friendships have their place and are appropriate, they never replace in-person friendships and interaction.
Another way to conquer an unhealthy association with social media is to make sure to cultivate relationships outside of the online world. That way when you do go back online after a social media hiatus, you won’t get caught up in the drama, etc. again. The real action is what’s going on in your non-virtual life.
Hopefully that will mean you can use social media for truly benefiting purposes (for you and your customer and online connections).
4. Another way to conquer boredom is to make sure you have a life after writing hours are through.
It’s as important to gather fuel for your books by getting experience—travel, build friendships, be social, make a snowman—whatever! You can’t write (as well) or connect (as well) if you don’t live.
Writing in Solitude: What I Do When I Get Stumped on Plots
When I find myself drifting off, allowing myself to get distracted, working on other projects, etc., I know that’s a sign of me struggling on where to go next with my plot.
I know everyone is a different writer—plotter and pantsers. But I feel like we all need a vision of what we are writing, even if it isn’t every detail. And I think we all find our vision in different ways. But since I AM a plotter, here’s how I make that happen:
I cast my characters, and to research my setting, I collect pictures and interview people who have been there (if I can’t actually go). Then I use a type of digital index-card approach to outlining. I open a PowerPoint document and I use slides for each of my plot points. I move them around as if they are actual physical index cards.
As I see my basic plot laid out before me—and it’s very basic in the beginning, mind you—I write things down like: I need romance here, something to slow down the quick pace here, a red herring here, foreshadowing here, a good meet-cute. I should introduce a new character here in an interesting way. I need the bad guy to do something here to pick up the excitement. More romance. Etc.
And then I’m filling up those slides as I go and moving them around to their appropriate places.
Using Powerpoint Slides to Help You Plot!
And finally (and this is NOT for everyone), I’m putting images on those slides—pictures of the characters that I cast, pictures of the scenery, the treasure map, the riddle in a visual form, etc. This helps me to look at my outline like a graphic novel. Some pantsers tell me I’m way too much at this point, but this really helps me to write my story.
I then copy all the wording from my powerpoint and paste it into a word document and form my chapters that way. I write down: possible chapter break here and here, possible POV here and here. AND then I’m ready to start.
I make my powerpoint into a PDF and I always have it open next to my document as inspiration. I also show it to my brainstorming friends who are like, “Ooh, it’s getting a little slow here or here.”
Like I say, this is my way, but everyone is absolutely different. Some people keep all this information in their heads like their own personal movie. But I have a terrible memory and I’m horrible at juggling info and so this really helps me.
Writing in Solitude: Writers Must Have a Vision to Keep Them Going
I’ve also noticed since casting my characters that suddenly I’m writing about people who are NOT me. I’m looking at who I cast and I’m like, “What would they do in this situation?” It isn’t necessarily what I would do, which I like because it’s a challenge and it’s exciting and different. It helps me to see my book like a movie in my head.
However, with that said, I still hold on to the claim that everyone needs to have a vision to keep them going—pantser or plotter. It will just vary what people will need to do to get that vision, from music to pictures to just a great feeling and bullet points.
My Characters Can Still Surprise Me!
I might have a very in-depth process of outlining, but that doesn’t mean that my characters don’t do something that surprises even me and it kind of pushes me off my game, or there’s a new development that I hadn’t considered, like feelings that my character had or….
Even I decide halfway to try a plot twist that just comes to me or the bad guy does something surprising (and interesting), etc. So when I’m noticing that I’m drifting off again into distractions and I identify that I’m waffling, I do a question/ answer session. I ask all the questions that I’m having. I just write them down with no answers and when I’m done, I go back… and I start answering.
For example, I’m writing now: What causes their breakup? Why is she falling for this particular guy? What is this person going to do to deceive her? What scary thing happens to them in this scene? How do I make this scene more memorable? And if I can’t figure out the answer, I take the questions to my brainstorming friends and they give me lots of ideas to choose from.
Note: Stay tuned for more from Stephanie in future posts!
Featured image courtesy Andrea Piacquadio via Pexels.
* * *
About Stephanie
USA Today Bestselling Author Stephanie Fowers loves bringing stories to life, and depending on her latest madcap ideas will do it through written word, song, and/or film. Presently, she lives near the mountains of Salt Lake City and lives the life of a not-so starving artist!
Find more information about Stephanie and her work on her Amazon author page, and connect with her on Goodreads, Bookbub, and Facebook.
Join her romance newsletter and get a FREE book here: Romance
Join her fantasy newsletter and get a FREE book here: Fantasy
Snowed in at Silver Resort:
She is a shattered dancer battling to walk again. He is a military bad boy fallen from grace. In USA Today Bestselling Author Stephanie Fowers’ heart-pounding romantic suspense, Hope’s weekend getaway at a snow-kissed resort transforms into a stormy whirlwind when Jag, the man responsible for her life-altering accident, unexpectedly comes to her rescue.
Hope can’t believe she’s snowed in with the very person who upended her life—Jag, a man whose stormy eyes turn her fiery resistance on its head. With no way to call for help and no way to run, she has never felt so helpless in the hands of someone who holds the power to open the heart she shut so firmly against the world.
Jag, a military dropout framed for a crime he didn’t commit, escapes prison to clear his name. Against the backdrop of a Christmas card resort, his concern for Hope—who unwittingly becomes his key witness—sparks into a love he has no right to feel. Hoping for redemption, praying for a miracle, he’ll sacrifice everything to keep her safe and away from his selfish arms.
As Hope’s memories of that fateful night resurface, she faces the daunting challenge of trusting Jag to thwart the shadowy forces determined to silence her. Even more so, Jag must confront his own demons and learn to hope in a future where blustering snowy days can actually mean Christmas kisses and snuggling next to a cozy fire.
Available at Amazon.
A Girl and Her Prince:
When Prince Venice decides to throw a yacht party, he expects a bad press day but gets so much more than he anticipated. USA Today Bestselling Author Stephanie Fowers takes you on a romantic adventure to an island where Greek tragedies aren’t things of the past and love often leads down dangerous roads.
Now that the vile revolutionaries have been driven underground after years of waging a devastating civil war against his family, Venice reluctantly emerges from hiding. Despite his father’s insistence that he take up his princely duties as heir, Venice only wants his freedom.
His deranged ex-girlfriend has left him with a bad taste for love…. just another reason why he’s throwing a completely “unprincely” yacht party that will be sure to cause a press frenzy. What he didn’t plan on was the woman of his dreams stowing aboard along with his horrible ex. Now he’s trying everything to get this unforgettable siren out of his mind.
Lavinia’s best friend promised her the vacation of a lifetime and now she’s stuck on a party boat with no end in sight. Their “womanizing” host is supposed to be arrogant, rude, uncouth, so why does the warmth of the prince’s mesmerizing eyes make her heart flip like she’s got a grade school crush?
Before she can throw his easy flirtations back in his face, their vacation takes a shocking nose dive when an accident strands her on a deserted island with the one man she should not be snuggling next to for warmth.
Can this unlikely match outwit a band of assassins, uncover shocking mysteries, and open their hearts to one another? Or will they become a tragic tale to warn others away from the Island of Scheria?
Available at Amazon.